All You Can Grab for Free

things you can get for free, freebies, services you get for free

It used to be we were suspicious when faced with the word FREE.  We pretty much knew there were no free lunches. 

The up and coming generation have a different idea though.  The question is – is there a hidden cost to their freebie mentality?


Our teens seem to live in a world of ‘free lunches’.  They know exactly where to download and watch movies for free; download free music and watch TV programmes.  Again, for nothing.  They can skype friends and watch them on webcam all over the world without charge or write songs and have them promoted free on You Tube.  Our kids make public all aspects of their lives on a plethora of ever-more-sophisticated and expensive social network sites, provided to the user without charge. 

What's the Catch?

The older generation immediately ask ‘So what’s the catch?’.  Our children,on the other hand, say ‘Mum, why on earth would you pay for this stuff?’

However you choose to look at it, the fact is that behind the scenes people are making a lot of money out of so-called free stuff.  Google make a fortune out of advertising, as do Facebook.  If you’ve ever glanced at the right hand side of the page as you tell all to your friendship groupings, you may have felt disturbed by  the carefully age-targetted ads for diet products, anti-ageing creams, menopause pills….you name it. Many companies like Skype, the internet phone company, make money by offering their basic service for free but charging handsomely for an upgraded membership. 

Says Bryan Appleyard in the Sunday Times:

‘Free is a new capitalist cult.  It begins with an idea – hook somebody to your product and then make money on keeping it going.  Gillette sells cheap razors so you’ll be tied into buying expensive blades.  Brita water filters tie you into a lifetime of buying new filters’.

It seems the older generation got it right. Logic dictates that there can be no free lunches.  But how do we convince our kids?